30 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



ence with the gait, followed shortly by urination and increasing evi- 

 dences of weakness, with marked difficulty in standing, Avas noted; 

 slight convulsions were seen 35 minutes after administration, repeated 

 at intervals during the following hour and a quarter; at 11:15 a. m. 

 paralysis of the hind legs led to a straddling attitude, head held back, 

 and sphincter relaxed. The temperature at 11 :50 a. m. was 95.2° F. 

 At 1 :54 p. m. the animal was much better. It could walk but stag- 

 gered. At 3 :49 p. m. the temperature was 102.3° F. ; condition good. 

 The rabbit seemed apparently all right until April 13, when convul- 

 sions occurred which were followed by death. 



GENERAL SYMPTOMS OF POISONING. 



The symptoms commonly observed are salivation, tearing, an in- 

 creased flow of secretion from the nose, emesis with convulsions, and 

 later paralysis of the limbs. On post-mortem examination the main 

 macroscopic lesion is dilation of the vessels of the intestinal walls, a 

 and if the case is not too acute, hemorrhages into the intestinal walls 

 occur, resembling what is known as rhododendron poisoning. The 

 aqueous extract of the flowers produced the same symptoms on rabbits 

 as that made from the leaves. 



ACTIVE PRINCIPLE. 



Comparatively little chemical work has been done with mountain 

 laurel save testing for a volatile oil 5 and arbutin. c Most of the chem- 

 ical work has been clone on a closely related plant, Andromeda 

 japonica, now knoAvn as Pieris japonica. Eykmann a isolated an 

 amorphous glucosidal body which he called asebotoxin, which melted 

 at 120° C. and had a lethal dose for rabbits of 3 mg. per kilo. Plugge e 

 studied the same plant, making his first report in 1882. He extracted 

 the plant with water, then precipitated with lead acetate and lead 

 subacetate, and after removing the lead with sulphureted hydrogen 

 or sodium sulphate concentrated the fluid in vacuc&at 50° C. This 

 colorless fluid was then shaken out with chloroform, and the chloro- 

 form on evaporation left transparent, noncrystalline scales, which he 

 called andromedotoxin. The mother liquid gave an amorphous 



a In one case of poisoning by Andromeda polifolia, this was noted by Plugge. 

 Ueber d. Vorkommen d. Androinedotoxins in Andromeda Polifolia. Arch. d. 

 Pharru., vol. 221, p, 814, 1883. 



6 Stabler R. H. On Kalmia Latifolia. Amer. Jour. Pharm., n. s., vol. 10, p. 

 246. — Bullock, C. On Kalmia Latifolia. Amer. Jour. Pharm., n. s., vol. 14, p. 

 260, 1848. 



c Kennedy, G. W. Arbutin in Kalmia Latifolia. Amer. Jour. Pharm., vol. 47, 

 p. 5, 1875. 



d Eykmann, I. F. Sur le Principe Toxique de 1' Andromeda Japonica. Rec. d. 

 Travaux Chim. des Pays-Bas, vol. 1, p. 224, 1S82. Phytochem. Notizen u. einige 

 japan. Pflauzen. Abhandl. d. Tokio Daigaku, No. 10. p. 1, 1883. 



e Plugge, P. C. Ueber Andromedotoxin. Arch. d. Pharm., vol. 221, p. 1, 1883. 



121— n 



